Oprah Winfrey is spearheading a high-profile campaign to bring attention to Breonna Taylor's case. Winfrey featured Taylor on the cover of September's issue of her magazine and set up 26 billboards in Louisville, Kentucky, demanding charges against the officers involved in her death.
The Justice Department announced today that Shepherd Hoehn, 50, has been charged by criminal complaint in federal district court with one count of violating 42 U.S.C. § 3631 for making threats to intimidate and interfere with his African-American neighbor because of the neighbor’s race and because of his use and enjoyment of his property, as well as two counts of violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) for unlawfully possessing firearms.
According to documents filed in connection with the complaint, on June 18, 2020, a construction crew began working at the direction of Hoehn’s neighbor to remove a tree from the neighbor’s property. Upon learning of the tree removal, Hoehn became angry and took several steps to intimidate and interfere with his neighbor and the construction workers. Specifically, Hoehn placed and burned a cross above the fence line facing his neighbor’s property; created and displayed a swastika on the outer side of his fence, facing his neighbor’s property; created and displayed a large sign containing a variety of anti-Black racial slurs next to the swastika; visibly displayed a machete near the sign with the racial slurs; loudly played the song “Dixie” on repeat; and threw eggs at his neighbor’s house. On July 1, 2020, the FBI executed of a federal search warrant at Hoehn’s home. During the search, several firearms and drug paraphernalia were located. Agents also discovered that Hoehn was a fugitive from a case in Missouri and unable to lawfully possess firearms.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, Hoehn faces a maximum statutory penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the three charged offenses.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Lawrence Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Brad Shephard of the Southern District of Indiana and Trial Attorney Katherine DeVar of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.
Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, Jr. became the new Air Force chief of staff on Thursday, making history as the first African American to lead one of the military services.
Brown succeeded Gen. David Goldfein, as the Air Force's 22nd chief of staff at a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, where the significance of the moment was not lost on Brown.
"This is a very historic day for our nation, and I do not take this moment lightly," he said in remarks to an audience of VIP's at one of the base's spacious hangars.
"Today is possible due to the perseverance of those who went before me, serving as an inspiration to me and so many others," he said.
He mentioned those forebears as the Tuskegee Airmen, the trailblazing World War II fighter unit that was made up entirely of African Americans.
Read more: History made as first African American general leads one of the military services
20 year incumbent Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO 1st District) took to Twitter to congratulate his primary opponent, Cori Bush after she defeated him in the primary.
Lacy tweeted:
Congratulations to Cori Bush morning This seat belongs to the people of Missouri’s 1st Congressional District and I respect their decision. It has been my honor and privilege to represent those who supported me and all others. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve.
Cori Bush, a progressive activist and veteran of the racial justice protest movement, defeated 20-year incumbent Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay in a Democratic primary on Tuesday, a stunning victory for the party's insurgent left.
The US House seat, based in St. Louis, has been held by Clay and his father, former Rep. William Clay Sr., one of the founders of the Congressional Black Caucus, since 1969. Bush, who challenged Clay in 2018 and lost, was the first candidate launched by Justice Democrats, the progressive group dedicated to toppling moderate Democratic congressional incumbents.
Bush's victory will send another round of shockwaves through the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill, where leadership has fought to stave off a new generation of combative progressives, who support "Medicare for All," the Green New Deal and other economic and racial justice policies dismissed for decades by the party establishment.
"We've been called radicals, terrorists, we've been dismissed as an impossible fringe movement -- that's what they called us," Bush said in her victory speech. "But now, we are a multiracial, multiethnic, multigenerational, mass movement united in demanding change, in demanding accountability, in demanding that our police, our government, our country recognize that Black lives do, indeed, matter."
"It is historic," Bush told supporters after the race was called, "that this year, of all years, we're sending a Black, working class, single mother who's been fighting for Black lives since Ferguson, all the way to the halls of Congress."
In her second attempt to unseat Clay, who won in 2018 with 57% of the primary vote, Bush was backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Sunrise Movement -- a youth-led group that champions the Green New Deal -- and other leftist and progressive leaders, including Jamaal Bowman, who ousted Rep. Eliot Engel in New York during the state's June primary. Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Bush two years ago, did not get involved in the 2020 contest.
